Cow bones good for grafting

By ANGELA GREGORY

Cow bone may be suited for human grafting following promising trials on sheep.

New Zealand scientists have successfully grafted treated cow bone on to sheep at Massey University, raising hopes it could eventually be used in reconstructive surgery.

The results of a combined study between the university's veterinary science department, the Wellington School of Medicine and Waikato University, will be revealed tomorrow at the Orthopaedics Association annual scientific conference.

The association's incoming president, Professor Geoffrey Horne, who was the trial's lead researcher, told the Herald that he was excited about the results, which had exceeded expectations.

In the trial 12 sheep had a piece of bone removed from their thighs and grafted on to another leg.

Meanwhile, specially prepared cow bone, developed at Waikato University, was surgically grafted to the hole in the thigh.

Scientists could then assess the bone cells behaviour in each leg.

Professor Horne, from Wellington Medical School's department of surgery, said they found the cow bone acted as a scaffold on which sheep could lay their own bone without rejection. The only difference between the legs was that the sheep's own bone grafted more quickly.

Professor Horne said the results were exciting as similar attempts to use animal bone in Germany after World War I had failed. The study used "defatted and deproteinated bovine cancellous" bone and its role in humans had yet to be evaluated.

He said approval to try the material on humans would require assurances of minimal risk of any disease transference. But he understood the bone was completely inert and risk of infection would be extremely small.

Professor Horne said the bone would be extremely useful in reconstructive surgery for accident victims or in patients who had lost bone through the removal of tumours.

At present bone was taken from the patient's hip, which was painful and produced a limited amount for grafting.

Cadaver bone could also be used but it was hard to get, and synthetic products were expensive.

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